Vinko Brešan
Vinko Brešan (Zagreb, 1964) is a Croatian film and theatre director and screenwriter. His debut, low-budget feature How the War Started on My Island was for nearly three decades the most-watched Croatian film after independence, until it was surpassed in early 2026 by the comedy The Wedding (d. Igor Šeregi). His films Marshal Tito’s Spirit and Witnesses received awards at festivals in Berlin and Karlovy Vary, and his fourth film Will Not Stop There won the FIPRESCI Prize at Karlovy Vary. The film The Priest’s Children was until recently the most watched Croatian film in the 21st century, and was nominated for the European Film Academy Award for Best Comedy. The TV series Diary of the Great Perica, which he co-wrote and directed, won the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Comedy TV Series and the Heart of Europe for Best TV Series of Eastern Europe in 2021. He also directs for theatre.
Hrvoslava Brkušić
Hrvoslava Brkušić (1982) graduated in Film and Television Editing from the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb and earned an MA in New Media from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb. As a film editor, she has collaborated on numerous documentary, experimental, and fiction films screened at prominent international festivals, including Rotterdam, IDFA, CPH, Sarajevo Film Festival, 25 FPS, and Oberhausen. In her artistic practice, she works across film, video, sound, and performance, exploring the relationships between these media through various formats and approaches. Her works have been presented at festivals and exhibitions in Croatia and internationally. She is one of the coordinators of the Klubvizija film laboratory and teaches at the Restart School of Documentary
Tina Hajon
Tina Hajon is a film producer, born in Milan and educated in Zagreb and Rome. With 25 years of experience in the film industry, she has built her career through international programmes, industry platforms and festivals, as well as through her work within cultural and audiovisual institutions. She serves as Programme Director of European Shooting Stars within the international organisation European Film Promotion, the leading European programme for the promotion of acting talent presented at the Berlinale. For more than fifteen years, she has collaborated with the Sarajevo Film Festival, where she previously served as Executive Producer of the CineLink industry platform and currently works as a selector for the Avant Premiere Series programme. In 2019, she founded DA2 – Zagreb Design, Art & Architecture Film Festival, where she continues to serve as Artistic Director. In 2022, in collaboration with regional film funds, she launched ReActing as a Star in Slovenia, a regional networking and training platform that she continues to lead, connecting actors from Southeast Europe with international casting directors, talent agents and filmmakers. Previously, as part of her work at the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, she led a national strategic project for the digitisation and development of Croatia’s independent cinema network, helping lay the foundations for the establishment of Kino Mreža, the Croatian Network of Independent Cinemas.
Tanja Lacko
Tanja Lacko, born in Zagreb, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Zagreb in 1991. Her professional focus is on the research and design of performance space, working as a production designer, university professor, and theorist of performance space. Over more than thirty years of her career, she has completed around fifty film, theatre, and television projects, including the films What Is a Man Without a Moustache?, Sonja and the Bull, Cowboys, and On the Other Side, as well as the television series New Age, When the Bell Rings, and Mamutica. She played an active role in the founding of the theatres Teatar Exit and Mala scena, as well as the theatre group Mig oka. Together with Goran Matović, she co-founded the artistic association Teatar poezije. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Croatian Theatre Award, the Golden Arena, and the “Vladimir Nazor” National Award. Since 2013, she has been employed at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, where she develops scenography curriculum and launched the MA programme in Scenic Design. She is an active member of the Croatian film community and the Board of Directors of the Croatian Society of Film Workers, where she advocates for professional and ethical standards in filmmaking.
Ivan Ramljak
Ivan Ramljak (Zagreb, 1974) is a film director and independent curator. In 2003 he founded the Human Rights Film Festival in Zagreb. From 2013 to 2022 he was the editor of Short Tuesday, a short film program at Tuškanac Cinema in Zagreb. Since 2016, he has been the artistic director of the Tabor Film Festival, Croatia’s oldest short film festival, and since 2022 he has been working as a programmer for the International Film Festival in Rotterdam. His films have been screened at more than 80 international festivals around the world (Cinéma du réel, DOK Leipzig, Sarajevo Film Festival, Dokufest, goEast…) and won several awards. His documentary Peacemaker (2025) received the Grand Golden Arena for Best Film at the Pula Film Festival.
